I like to talk about Megan Ellison like she’s the greatest thing ever to happen to the movie industry for financing slightly off-beat, director-driven projects like Her, American Hustle, The Master, Spring Breakers, etc, but her Annapurna Pictures’ deal to make another Terminator movie with Paramount last year shows she’s not allergic to cash money either. Today, Variety reports that the directing gig has gone to somewhat unknown quantity Alan Taylor (above), who’s best known for directing HBO shows like Game of Thrones, Deadwood, The Sopranos, etc, and the upcoming Thor: The Dark World.
Hooray?
Sources tell Variety that Taylor is in talks to direct the rebooted “Terminator” film for Skydance Productions, Paramount and Annapurna Pictures.
Plot details have not been revealed other than this is the first film in a stand alone trilogy. It is still unknown at this time what part Arnold Schwarzenegger will have in the film, though he has said in past interviews he will be back for the film.
Skydance and Annapurna will co-finance along with the studio with David Ellison producing for Skydance and Megan Ellison producing for Annapurna. Laeta Kalogridis [Pathfinder, Alexander] and Patrick Lussier [Drive Angry] penned the script.
The studio had targeted Ang Lee early on, but a deal could never be reached. Other early targets included Rian Johnson and “Prisoners” director Denis Villeneuve.
While Taylor’s biggest credit to date is his work on the HBO series “Game of Thrones,” early word on how well the “Thor” shoot went most certainly helped in getting Taylor this gig. [Variety]
The HBO shows he’s worked on are all great, but aren’t typically director-driven, and hiring a guy based on word of mouth about a movie that hasn’t come out yet has historically been a dicey proposition. Anyone remember when Justin Marks was the hottest screenwriter in Hollywood? Either way, I guess we’ll see when Thor comes out in November. The Terminator reboot is scheduled to come out June 26, 2015, and as far as we know, the plan is still for it to shoot for an R rating. And no matter what happens, the mystery box option is probably still better than McG.